This one is a winner. A boy and his troubled mother nurture an unhealthy obsession with the MacBride family, whose patriarch once failed to grant the boy a scholarship at an English private school. Many years later his revenge culminates in a baby being taken from its mother. Grief, obsession, anorexia, post natal depression, affairs, abuse, […]
Latest Reviews
Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes
“So I Lyfted to Home Depot, where I bought some random stuff, rope and duct tape, plastic bags, cable ties, and plastic gloves. The girl at the register winked and said she’s also a big fan of Fifty Shades and this is what has become of our society. Fucking and killing are the same damn […]
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
I didn’t like Hawkins’ previous novel The Girl on the the Train much and I don’t like this one much either. It’s a solid story muddled by being told from no less than ten different perspectives – hard to keep up with who is who. The supernatural element – an old woman who hears the […]
Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane
This is a slow burning thriller but the last 150 pages make you want to batten down the hatches and read read read, breathlessly. It begins with Rachel shooting her husband (who can resist reading on?) then skips back in time to Rachel’s background. There’s a little bit too much background for my liking -Rachel […]
In the Lake of The Woods by Tim O’Brien
This is a weird little beauty, and difficult to characterise. When politician’s wife Kathy Wade goes missing from a remote cabin in Minnesota, you’d think the author would tell you what happened to her, but no. Instead he presents a series of hypotheses and you choose which one most resonates with you. Kathy’s husband John […]
Dissolution by CJ Sansom
The first novel in a series of six, Dissolution immerses us in the world of hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake, the thinking woman’s crumpet. He’s an intelligent, compassionate man with the misfortune to be born during the rule of Henry VIII. His physical deformity makes him an object of almost constant sniggering and ridicule yet he plods […]
Six Tudor Queens: Anne Boleyn A King’s Obsession by Alison Weir
This is a rather more sympathetic portrait of Anne Boleyn than many others. It is widely acknowledged Henry had an affair with Anne’s sister Mary and fathered a child with her before beginning a relationship with Anne. Weir suggests in this novel that Henry’s relationship with Mary began with him raping her, leading Anne to loathe […]
The Silence of the Sea by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
Sigurdardottir is the thinking person’s thriller writer. She’s an Icelandic PD James – less about gory, shocking crimes and more about characters and motivations. This one’s a winner – a luxury yacht comes crashing into a harbour with no one on board. Among the missing are a family with six year old twin girls. The […]